Sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh

Yesterday, I began a new series of blogs about the image and likeness of God. Asking questions like, "Are we born today into the image and likeness of God, as Adam was created in that image?"

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The answer is a sad, no! We are all born into the likeness of sinful flesh. What is even more amazing is that Jesus did not come to the earth in the image and likeness of God. I know this sounds almost heretical but listen to the words of Paul:

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"For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh" (Romans 8:3).

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To the church in Philippi, Paul wrote about Jesus, "But emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men" (Philippians 2:7).

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The writer of Hebrews also wrote about Jesus coming in the likeness of sinful man. He wrote, "Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things, that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins fo the people" (Hebrews 2:17).

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Jesus was made into the likeness of man. The world did not recognize Him. He likeness was like that of sinful man. "And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross" (Philippians 2:9). And although Jesus came and was found in the likeness of man, "He existed in the form of God" (Philippians 2:6).

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Jesus was both the likeness of man and the image of God. The Bible says Jesus is in the image of the Father, saying "He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature" (Hebrews 1:3). I love the way the writer of Colossians puts it, he wrote about Jesus, and said, "And He is the image of the invisible God" (Colossians 1:15).

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Here's what Paul wrote in his second letter to the Corinthians, "And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God" (2 Corinthians 4:3-4).

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There is hope to be remade into the image of God. Believers have this hope. It says in the first letter to the Corinthians, "And just as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly" (1 Corinthians 15:49). We won't fully bear the image of the heavenly until we are changed, "In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality" (1 Corinthians 15:52-53).

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This will happen at the rapture of the church. John wrote; "We know that, when He appears [at the rapture], we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him just as He is" (1 John 3:2). But I love the following verses:

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"And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure. Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness. And you know that He appeared [the first coming] in order to take away sins; and in Him there is no sin. No one who abides in Him sins; no one who sins has seen Him or knows Him. Little children, let no one deceive you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous; the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared [the first time] for this purpose, that He might destroy the works of the devil. No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother. For this is the message which you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another; not as Cain, who was of the evil one, and slew his brother. And for what reason did he slay him? Because his deeds were evil, and his brother's were righteous. Do not marvel, brethren, if the world hates you. We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer; and you know that no murderere has eternal life abiding in him. We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has the world's goods, and beholds his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him? Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth" (1 John 3:3-18).

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Amen and Be Blessed, today and everyday, in Christ Jesus our Lord!